Display and selling apparatus



Jail. 9, 1923. 1,441,653.

H. W. ARNOLD.

DISPLAY AND SELLING APPARATUS.

FILED APR. 13, 1920. Y 2 SHEETS-SHEET 1.

x 1 Y I E 9 Jan. 9, 1923. 1,441,653

H. w. ARNOLD.

DISPLAY AND SELLING APPARATUS.

FILED APR. I3. 1920. 2 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

Patented Jan. 9, 192a.

UNHTEVY s iHENRY W. ARNOLD, OF SAORAIVIENTO, CALIFORNIA, ASSIGNOR T0 OLD MOTHER HUBBAEDS GBOGEBY CU?BOARD CORPORATION, OF FOB/MIA, CORBORATION OF CALIFORNIA. H

SAN FRANCISCO, CALI- nrsr'nAY Ann SELLING erraaarus.

Application filed April 13, 1920. Serial No. 373,583.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, HENRY W. AnNoLo, a citizen of the United States, residing at Sacramento, inthe county oi? Sacramento and State of California, have invented new and useful Improvements in Display :and Selling Apparatus, ot'.which the following isaspecification. i

i This invention relates to apparatus for displaying and. dispensing packages, particularly canned goods, and other packaged food products or commodities which are sold in uniform and standard. sizes.

. It is believed that the sale of food products of the character described will be aug mented, efiiective advertising" will. be secured, and that a great convenience to the public will be provided by the establishment of food stations at points out of the business centres and shopping districts of large towns and cities and also at remote points along state highways, roads, and the like. l l

These stations put up after the popular fashion of gasoline service stations and constructed in a novel, attractive and inexpensive manner, will serve not only to etfectively display and advertise the goods to be sold, but will prove convenient to the consumers.

Accordingly, it is the primary object of this invention to make commercially practicable' the establishing of food stations and I do this by providing comparatively small and inexpensive apparatus which may be quickly assembled to provide a compact store unit arranged and constructed so as to facil itate the display, the handling, storing, and vending of the goods to be sold.

A further object of the invention is to provide apparatus of the character described constructed so that when disassenr bled, or even assembled, may be easily transported by rail, motor vehicle, or otherwise and quickly set up in less than, tor example,

an hour, so as to provide a complete, compact, attractive store and display unit, adapted to house an attendent and dispense goods in a novel and time-saving manner. A still further object is to provide apparatus of the character defined, in which only one commodity of each kind will be displayed at the same time and in which the various commodities Wlll be stored in a. compact,

I 9-9 of Figure l.

eonvenient, manner, and in which they may be conveniently moved into display position in succession after previous ones of the same kind have been sold,

The invention possesses other advantages and features, some of which, with the foregoing will be set forth at length in the following description wherein I shall outline in full that form of the invention whichll have selected for illustration in the drawings accompanying and, forming a part of the present specification. Tn sa1ddrawings,l

have shown one form of the construction of my invention, but it is to be understoodthat I do not limit myself to such form, since the invention as expressed in the claim may be embodied in a plurality of forms. Referring to the drawings: Figure 1 is a front elevation of the apparatus of this invention, showing a part thereof broken away.

Figure 2 is a horizontal sectional view of the apparatus.

Figure 3 1s a vertical apparatus.

Figure 9 is a sectional view taken on line In carrying out my i an enclosed structure of wood or any other suitable material, made up otone or more sections as desired, and divided into two compartments, one compartment being for a clerk or attendant and is of just sufficient size to permit one person to operate freely sectional view of the nvention, I provide therein. This compartmentv is provided in The part with transparent front walls.

andcommodities so as to display the goods, this being possible by provision of the transother compartment contains a series of subcompartments opening into the attendants compartment and adapted to contain goods parent frontavall. The attendants com-w partment houses an extensiblecabinet or coirtainer, the outer wall of which acts as a closure for an opening in the transparent front wall,. through which opening the cabinet is ext'end'edtq permit theupper wall thereof tof serve ass counter, there being windows opening above the said opening.

r The present embodimentof the invention;

divided into compartments 6' and '7 for an operator and for. storing and displaying goods, respectively. Preferably the coinpa-rtme nts" comprise separate un ts of the structure, joined to one another to provide the complete structure. lVit-h this arrangement, th'e attendants compartment is wider than the food compartment and has a rear 1 ll 8 joined to the side wall2 of the latter compartment Bymaking the structure in two similarunits, the assembling and transportation thereof is facilitated. I

The front wall. 1 has doors 9 and 10 therein on opposite sides, the npperjparts doors being formed of glass panes, as in a French door, whereas the lower parts may hepanelledin the ordinary manner.

The display and storage compartment may be filled from the attendants compartment or from the back, in the latter case through doorways closed by suitable back doors. In the foodcompartment is the means for facilitating the displaying and handling of round or cylindrical packages, also the similar means for flat or fiat-sided packages. These means are constructed'and arranged to provide for convenience of reaching, hanclling,tlisplayii1g, and dispensing the goods 'to be sold.

An opening 12 iskprovided in the front wall 1 approx mately in the center thereof,

desired, and is rectilinear in cross section,

the outer wall it thereof servingfor a closure for the opening 12 when said cabinetis "disposed within the compartment 6, as shown-"1n dotted lines iii'Fignre 3 of the drawings. "There are provided rollers 15 on the lower's'ideof the cabinet 13 so as to provide for rolling said cabinet into, and out of, position. 'VVhen the cabinet is extended, as

shown in F igure 3, the top wall 16 thereof serves as a counter over which the' goods are sold. T0 provide for access to the counte'r,outwardlylopening windows "18 are hinged, as at 19', to thefront wall 1, above theiopen'ing 12in said frontwall." *These windows 18 are preferably'of the" French t pe, so as to be of an ornamental appear- -'ance. I lt' will thus be seen that the entire "goods mounted in the compartment 7. iand a floor of the 1,4.e1,ese

upper half of the front allis madeup of window construction providinga substantially t'ransparentupper half for the wall. The side walls'2 of the compartment 6, are

formed with".French windows '20 inthem upper halves thereof.

By this arrangement, a gi-earueai of light is admitted to tlie operators compartment 6, and provision is made for displaying the The food compartment 7 is divided into a plurality of package containing cells generally designated :21. These cells open-into the compartment- 6 and are adapted to'containgoods to be soldanddisplayed so'that said goods will be visible from in front of,

and outside the compartment 6. The'c'ells 21. are preferably made up of a plurality 0t dispensing shelves 22 for round orcylindrical packages and vshelves23 for flat or irregularly shaped packages. I niayrlivide the compartment 7 into sub-compartments "by a partitionv 24 extendinghorizontally across the compartment approximately mid way of the upper aiid lower ends thereof on The shelves 22 for supporting cylindrical or round packages, such as canned goods, each comprise a pair of parallel tracks 25, said tracks being joined at'their'ends by cross bars 26 and secured in any suitable manner within the compartmentsfi, but so as to be inclined downwardly towards the front or ooen side of the chainber 6 Each of the trac s 25 is provided with an inward- 1y laterally extending flangeQTwhich is in 1 turn formed with an upwardly extending flange 28. The cans or other objects to be dispensed ride upon the flanges 28 between the sides of the tracks so as't'o be prevented from rolling'off ofthe tracks endwise. At the forward ends of the tracks and ljietweeu each. pair, a concavo-convex receiver 29 is pivoted with its concave side uppermost; A I pivot pin 30 eXtendsacross-thetracks so as,

to pivotally support the receiver 29'and a stop pin 31 disposed below the-inner end of said receiver 1112111551118 movement ofsaid receiver downwardly at its -1I1I18I end. The

1 forward endiof the receiver. i'slimite d in its downward movement by the forward cross I bar26. A plurality of cans or other objects;

to be dispensed is mounted upon thetracks of each shelf, such as cans of tomatoes, which are held therein by the receiver 29. I I

have shown the'shelves22'inthe upper half of the compartment a and the housing shelves in the-lower half, but I may arrange these otherwise, as desired; "Depending from the outer ends of the receivers 29 are r'suitable tags 32 whichprovide' for"designating thegoods inthe particular shelf VVhenthe foremost'can rolls down onto"thehfreceiver, it-loasses' over the inner portion ofxsaidreceiver and raises the outer por tion thereof so as to form a stopp' Whe'n the foremost frame including end. pieces 36. lteciprocably mounted between the tracks of each shelf and upon the end pieces 36 is an advancing bar 37. The upper surface of this bar normally lies below the upper surface 38 of the track upon which the packages rest but upon reciprocation of the bar, it will move into engagement with the packages and tend to advance them along the tracks 33, as will later he more fully described. A retractile,

spring 39 is secured, as at 41:6, near one end of the bar 37, and as at 41, at its other end to the end piece 36. This spring tends to return the bar to normal position after the bar has been pulled out by the operator. To provide for the raising of the bar when it is pulled outwardly, so that it will come into contact with the packages and will advance said packages, I provide lugs 43 hinged, as at 44, to the rear end of the bar, and depending therefrom. These lugs are hinged so as to move forwardly only and to fold up against the under side of the bar 37. The rear edges of the end pieces are beveled, as at l5. 0n the front end of the bar 37 there is provided a tab 16 depending therefrom. This tab is adapted to bear suitable characters to designate the particular commodity. By grasping the tab 46 and pulling outwardly, the lugs 43 come into contact with the beveled faces 45 of the endpieces 36 and cause said bar to move upwardly and engage the packages on the track. This will advance the packages into position to be readily removed from the shelf. The bars are pulled outwardly against the action of the springs 39 and when released, the springs return the bars to normal position. As the bars begin to return to normal position. the lugs 43 fold up, and the bars immediately lower to their normal level, below that of the t rack supportingsurfaces for the packages. Thus, the bar tendsto advance the packages only when it is pulled out.

The packages are arranged on the shelves 23 so that the foremost package on each shelf is in display position. It will thus be seen that Tar-range the shelves in the compartment 6 so that practically the entire area may be used for the goods to be displayed and sold, To insulate the compartments 6 and 7 from heat, 1 provide a dead air space 17 in the upper part of each compartment by the use of false roof plates 48.

With reference to the foregoing description and theaccompanying drawings, it will be seen that I have provided compact and an inexpensive apparatus which may be readily set up to act as a store unit. As an example, the apparatus of this invention may be readily transported by truck to the point at which it is to be set up and in a very short time assembled for operation. 'llhe goods to be displayed may be readily placed upon the shelves 252 by opening the back doors 46 and filling said shelves from the rear side of the structure. The shelves thus filled willdispose one commodity of each kind in position to be viewed and by providing approximately the entire upper half of the operators compartment of transparent walls, the entire device acts as a display cabinet and permits passers-by to readily view the goods from in front of the operators compartment 6. With the windows 18 closed, and the (JOIIlbil'lGt'l cabinet and counter 13 housed within the compartment 6, the apparatus presents a fanciful store front appearance and is snug and weather-proof. By opening the windows 18 and extending the combined cabinet and counter 16, shown in Figure 3 of the drawings, the apparatus is made ready for use. The operator within the compartment 6 may readily remove the goods to be sold from the shelves and place them upon the counter 16.

1 consider one of the most essential features of my invention to be the provision of an apparatus of a novel and inexpensive form, by n'ieans of which a minature store or food station may be provided at various out p,

scribes, a compartment, open on one side thereof, a plurality of shelves mounted horizontally within said compartment, said shelves including tracks upon which commodities are adapted to rest, an advancing bar mounted upon. each shelf and normally disposed below the supporting surface of the tracks, and means for moving said bar above the supporting surface of the. tracks when said bar is moved in one direction, and for lowering said bars when moved in the other direction.

HENRY W. ARNOLD. 

